Lathe update/questions

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Well ... let's be honest here:

1) My first metalworking was in trying to make an equivalent of an Ampex 351 tape recorder. There, I had a hand held electric drill, a pseudo drill-press stand for that, a coping saw and hacksaw, files and an ancient 6" bench grinder. This would have been around 1958 or so.

2) I first touched a lathe (with no training, just to do a simple thing with a small one at work, back around the summer of 1960. Based on that, I guess that I've been at it nearly 50 years.

3) However, it was many years after that before I got regular access to a lathe and a milling machine at work. Perhaps around 1970 or so -- and I got some training from the genuine machinist who worked there. I was an electronics technician at the time, and wanted to learn to do other things to make my projects at home look nicer.

4) perhaps a couple of years later, I got a Unimat SL-1000 (mostly lathe, but played at being a mill and a drill press too. :-) I learned a lot about how to work around weaknesses in the machines at that time. I was living in a single-bedroom apartment, so I had no space for larger machines -- just the Unimat and a sensitive drill press -- plus the afore-mentioned pseudo drill press holding an electric drill motor.

5) I got married, and moved into a house. At this point, I was able to pick up an Atlas/Crafstman 6x18 lathe, and somewhat later a floor-standing 16-speed drill press. This was around 1976-1977.

6) Worked with the genuine machinists over the years at work, learning what I could from them. Expanded the house around 1985 or so, and had room in the garage, plus I was getting close to retiring. so -- I got a little CNC lathe (Emco-Maier), a Bridgeport BOSS-3 CNC machine (with problems), a 12x24" Clausing. A Nichols horizontal mill, a Rockwell/Delta 7" shaper, a small mill built around the milling head for the manual Emco-Maier Compact-5 and a good x-y base, a small heat treating oven (to which I married an Omega controller for accurate heat treating), horizontal/vertical 4x6 bandsaw, and an Emco 3-wheel vertical bandsaw, finger brake, corner notcher, and shear, 8" bench grinder

The 12x24" Clausing lathe came with a bed turret, so I got to teach myself production work using that, as well as using it as a normal toolroom lathe. So -- exactly where do you say I started? It has been rather spread out. But, I've always kept my eyes and ears open whenever I had a chance to learn how to do something. That is *always* of interest to me.

Enjoy, DoN.

Jim,

:)

High speed images can be useful, even when we understand why something happens. I have never had the fun myself, but heard lots of war stories about having cameras control events to get the timing right. At 100,000 frames per second (!!!!), the event has to be ready when the camera is running.

That's about right. I might phrase it a little differently, but formal education prepares one to begin the real learning.

Somehow I suspect I might see it the other way around - thermodynamics is too much like chemistry for my tastes. Takes all kinds.

Bill

Learned that in grade ten shop class (grade 9 was in the old school with no shop) Gerry :-)} London, Canada

I have not seen it either - can you explain it for us?

Bill

In case you didn't see my response to Jim Wilkins, I posted the following.

I've done the same but I was thinking of filing the final smooth curve. On say a 90 degree corner and holding the piece with each face at about

45 to horizontal what I did originally, as I had never been shown, I just moved the file forward and rocked it from the near face to the far face so the contact point travels away form you to create the curve. The instructor showed my to start with the file parallel with the far face and moving the file forward, rock it back, to end the stroke with the file parallel to the near face, in this way the contact point travels back towards you during the operation. This instantly gave me a much better finish and radius and it's the way I've done it ever since.

You mean filing lengthwise to smooth it after shaping crosswise to the line?

I'm OK with the rocking motion but I have a hard time keeping the pressure equal on both sides of the file, especially after the flats are gone and I can't see the angle of the lines between them to correct. For the last bit of finish I use my squared-up belt sander and the same smooth rotation of the part. The sander has a free-hand area above the backing plate that does an excellent job of smoothing the sharp edges on either side of the radius curve. The 1" sander I have doesn't cut to shape as fast as a good coarse file, though.

I can do almost as well with a hand-held angle grinder by rotating the body of the tool with both hands.

Jim Wilkins

Yes filing perpendicular to the radius axis rather than parallel, that's how I normally file the flats also on narrow pieces, wider pieces I would file parallel to the radius axis.

I have a 1" belt linisher also, don't know how I lived without one before I got it. My neighbour liked it as well and kept popping around to use it until he bought one of his own. As you say about the unsupported section it leaves a much better finish the running the piece against the platen, it seems every time the join comes around it takes slightly more off a radius and makes for a poorer finish.

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What the heck does this have to do with a lathe or metalworking trades, Mr. Spammer? Advertising has long been prohibited in the group.

Reported to Google abuse (news injection and honeypot return address) and Yahoo abuse (web hosting, see below) for TOS/AUP.

AND I WANT TO RECEIVE FOLLOW UP FROM A HUMAN BEING from both sites stating that this lUser's e-mail and web hosting accounts are closed.

Other rec.crafts.metalworking readers please feel free to join in.

Bill, I personally think the lathe is junk. How many spindle speeds do you have ?(probably 9), you need 12. How fast is the slowest speed in back gear? You really need around 30 rpm. You probably have around 90 rpm and that is too fast for a 12" machine. How many threads will it cut? (38). A good machine will cut 80 in inch alone. An inch machine will have a 4 or 8 TPI lead screw for the carraige and a 10 TPI for crossfeed and compound. The good chinese machines have dual graduations on the carraige and compound both inch and metric. Most metric machines have .02 graduations. Check the thread dial. You probably have a metric machine. If you elect to keep it, you MUST completely dissassemble it and clean it. It will be full of chips, swarf and grit. Assume nothing, check everything including spindle parrallelism to the bed ways. You get what you pay for. If you ever get a chance to use a class machine, you will never own the one you just bought. Steve

Bill, Please do not get me wrong. I am not prejudiced against Chinese machines. They are great value for money, but you need to understand what you are buying. I have had very good luck with some, but I have really seen some junk. Buyer beware! The good machines are usually made in Taiwan and the junk made on the mainland, but that rule is very gray now with the much larger trade between Taiwan and the mainland. I have witnessed extensive trade volume with China through a close associate. On some lots of machinery, we have seen 1 in 4 received as failures in some shape or form! Worst of all, most resellers never carry parts. Do not expect after sales support! Steve

I take it you've never seen any of the junk made here in the USA?

I personally have not seen any junk tools made in the USA.

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 12:34:18 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus30765 quickly quoth:

Then you haven't been buying them here for long enough, Ig.

-- Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar beforehand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life. -- Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, 1811

Well I have not seen a junk tools made either here or in Europe. Of course, some are better than others, but never junk. However, it stands to reason that there must be some junk made in the first world even if I haven't seen it, but it sure in hell isn't 1 to 4, which I see regularly from mainland China. Steve

Neither have I, actually...and Im pretty tool savvy.

Gunner

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

By junk, I mean the tool either did not function as intended, or broke much before its expected lifetime, under normal use. I cannot recall a single instance of a US made tool failing in this manner.

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:31:29 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, Ignoramus30765 quickly quoth:

If nothing else, you never bought anything from Searz branded Crapsman in the late 70s or early 80s, or anything not branded Crapsman at any other time. Then again, lots of that crap is Chiwanese or Indian, and both those sources have been producing a MUCH better product in the last decade or so.

-- As a curmudgeon, I grok that in its entirety. --LJ

So, if it has a Craftsman lable it has to have been made in the good ol' USA?

You know better than that!

Richard